Federico Fellini Studies

Richard Dyer talks about his research project at the International Research Institute for Cultural Technologies and Media Philosophy (IKKM) Weimar. Period of fellowship: February 2009 – July 2009. Also see Richard Dyer's IKKM-Site.

“What is a movie, in the beginning? A suspicion, a hypothetic[al] story, a shadow of ideas, blurred feelings. And, still, [from that] first impalpable contact, it already seems to be itself, complete, vital, pure.” (Federico Fellini, Fazer um filme (“Making a Movie”). Rio de Janeiro: Editora Civilização Brasileira, 2000., 204 and 205, translated by Marcelo Moreira Santos and cited by him in 'Cinema and Pragmatism: a Reflection on the Signic Genesis in Cinematographic Art', Signs, Vol. 3, 2009: pp. 30-40)

“The movie tells its worlds, its stories, its characters, through images. Its expression is figurative, like [that] of dreams. (...) The movie tries to reproduce a world, an environment, in a vital manner. It tries to remain in this dimension, trying to recreate the emotion, the enchantment, the surprise.” (Fellini, cited in op. cit. 139 and 154)

Inspired by the video, above, of the sublime Richard Dyer talking about "The Wind in Fellini" in simply one of the best Film Studies lectures currently available on the internet, Film Studies For Free today brings you some choice links to openly accessible, and high quality, studies of and further viewing on the work of director Federico Fellini, and of his collaborators, like Nino Rota (the subject of a wonderful new book by Dyer).

Just so you know, FSFF is off on a trip shortly and will be back, joyously labouring away to track down such wondrous links as these below, in just over a week. See ye efter!

• Lior Barshack, 'Intimate Enunciations: Carnival and Apocalypse in Fellini', Cardozo Law Review, 31.4, 2010

• John Baxter, 'Juliet of the Spirits', The Criterion Collection: Notes, March 11, 2002

• Peter Bondanella, 'Federico Fellini: A Life in Cinema' - excerpt, The Films of Federico Fellini (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)

• Peter Bondanella, 'Amacord', The Criterion Collection: Notes, November 22, 1999

• Robert Castle, 'Orchestra Rehearsal Reconsidered: In which "Fellini takes us beyond our frailties and chaos', Bright Lights, Issue 40, May 2003

• Adrian Danks, 'Roma', Senses of Cinema, February 2002

• Richard Dyer, 'The Ending of 8 ½ (1963)', in James Walters and Tom Brown (eds), Film Moments: Criticism, History, Theory (2010)

• Richard Dyer, 'Tales of Plagiarism And Pastiche', Nino Rota: Music, Film and Feeling (London: Palgrave/BFI, 2010)  (27 free pages) Book info. 

• David Ehrenstein, 'La Strada', The Criterion Collection: Notes, March 7, 1988

• Federico Fellini, 'Nights of Cabiria', The Criterion Collection: Notes, September 6, 1999

• Federico Fellini, 'And the Ship Sails On', The Criterion Collection: Notes, September 27, 1999

• Manuela Gieri, 'Character and Discourse from Pirandello to Fellini: Defining a Countertradition in an Italian Context', QUADERNI d'italianistica Volume XHl. No. 1, 1992

• David Hannah (with Richard Dyer), 'Film composer Nino Rota's collaborations' (Viewing: 3:24), BBC website, August 31, 2010

• Tullio Kezich, '8¹⁄2: When "He" Became "I"', The Criterion Collection: Notes, December 3, 2001

• Marcia Landy, 'Introduction', Italian Film (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)

• David Lavery, 'News From Africa: Fellini-Grotesque', originally published in Post Script 9.1 and 2 (1990): 82-98

• Tony Maraini, 'An Interview with Federico Fellini', Bright Lights Journal, Issue 26, November 1999

• Todd McGowan, 'Fantasy and Showing Too Much', The Real Gaze: Film Theory After Lacan (Albany: State University of New York, 2007)

• Pu Miao, 'The Two Themes: Settings in Fellini's Films', Places, 7.3, 1991

• Marcelo Moreira Santos and cited him in 'Cinema and Pragmatism: a Reflection on the Signic Genesis in Cinematographic Art', Signs, Vol. 3, 2009: pp. 30-40

• Gary Morris, 'Nights of Cabiria', Bright Lights, Issue 22, September 1998 

• Catherine O'Rawe, '‘"I padri e i maestri": Genre, Auteurs and Absences in Italian Cinema', Italian Studies, 63.2, 2008

• Tom Piazza, 'I Vitelloni: A Trip to the Station', The Criterion Collection: Notes, April 23, 2004

• George Porcari, 'Fellini Goes To The Beach', Cineaction, Issue 75, 2008

• Megan Ratner, 'Knocking on Modernity's Door: Fellini's I Vitelloni." Bright Lights Film Journal, vol. 41, August 2003

• Dana Renga, 'Irony and the Aesthetics of Nostalgia: Fellini, Zanzotto and Casanova's Redemption', QUADERNI d'italianistica, Volume XX, No. 1-2, 1999 

• Sam Rohdie, 'Amarcord: Federico of the Spirits', The Criterion Collection: Notes, September 4, 2006

• Jonathan Rosenbaum, 'The White Sheikh', The Criterion Collection: Notes, April 28, 2003

• Andrew Sarris, 'Variety Lights', The Criterion Collection: Notes, August 28, 2000

• Ajay Sekher, 'Ways of Seeing the Self, Subjectivity and History: Filmic Autobiographies, Biopics and Historicals', Academia.edu, date unknown

• Alexander Sesonske, '8¹⁄2: A Film with Itself as its Subject', The Criterion Collection: Notes, December 3, 2001

• Antonia Shanahan, 'Federico Fellini', Senses of Cinema, Issue 21, 2002

• Domenic Siracusa, 'Casanova, Marinetti and the Art of Seduction', Carte Italiane, 2.6, 2010

• 'Agnès Varda on Amacord', Viewing (10:49), BFI Live, May 5, 2010

• Marguerite Waller, 'Whose Dolce Vita is this anyhow? The Language of Feliini's Cinema', QUADERNI d'italianistica, Volume XI, No. 1, 1990

• Peter Wuss, 'Dreamlike Images in Fellini’s 8 1/2 and Tarkovsky’s The Mirror: A Cognitive Approach', Avila, Fall 2003